Los Angeles, CA, August 24, 2010 – On September 11, 2010, LAXART will open its fall exhibition season with Casting Call, a one-day performance event organized by artist Charlie White. The event will entail a daylong casting call aimed at locating one “California Girl” between the ages of 13 and 16 to appear on a Los Angeles billboard as part of the LAXART Billboard Project series. This live performance will invite viewers to witness the entire casting process within LAXART, where a windowed wall will divide the main exhibition space into two areas: a casting office on one side, and a public viewing room for onlookers on the other.

Casting Call furthers White’s ongoing interest in the complexities of the American teen as cultural icon, image, and national idea. Beginning with Girl Studies (2008) – a series comprised of a 35mm short film (American Minor), an experimental animation (OMG BFF LOL), and a set of five double portraits (Teen and Transgender Comparative Study) – White has carried out an extensive investigation into the processes through which the American teen image operates as a privileged articulation of American pop culture. As the next stage in this study, Casting Call provides a live interrogation into the cultural image and idea construction of the American teen. In exposing the casting process as a nexus of public spectacle and individual ambition, White provides a critical space from which to take part in the discomforts and desires related to the presentation and consumption of the adolescent image. Simultaneously, those taking part in the casting call will experience the heightened awareness of being viewed by a live audience throughout the casting process.

Casting Call is not an open call for talent. The event will be limited to selected applicants provided by the Burbank Casting Company, who, working in conjunction with Charlie White, will select one hundred girls to take part in the daylong process. During the casting call, each teen will have a portrait taken in order to be considered for appearance on the LAXART Billboard during the month of October 2010.
About the Artist

Charlie White lives and works in Los Angeles. He received his BFA from the School of the Visual Arts, New York, in 1995 and his MFA in 1998 from Art Center College of Design. White’s work has been exhibited internationally for more then a decade with recent solo institutional exhibitions at Domus Artium, Salamanca, Spain; The Oslo Kunstforening, Oslo, Norway; and the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, Connecticut; as well as numerous group shows at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; and the Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art, China. White’s first film, American Minor (2008), was selected to screen at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and Director’s Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival. His most recent monograph, American Minor, which includes archived materials, personal collections, and completed works relating to his investigations of the popular representations of the contemporary teen subject, was published in 2009 by JRP|Ringier. He is currently an Associate Professor and the Director of the MFA Program at the University of Southern California’s Roski School of Fine Arts.

About LAXART

Celebrating its 5th Anniversary in 2010, LAXART is the leading independent nonprofit contemporary art space in Los Angeles, committed to the production of experimental exhibitions and public art initiatives. Responding to Los Angelesʼ cultural climate, LAXART produces and presents new work for all audiences and offers the public access to the next generation of artists and curators. LAXART supports challenging work, reflecting the diversity of the city and stimulates conversations on contemporary art in Los Angeles, fostering dynamic relationships between art, artists and their audiences. LAXART has produced and commissioned over 100 projects in five years.